NASA Developing Next-Gen Search & Rescue Technology (FULL VIDEO) Early in July, 16-year-old Autumn Veatch was found on the side of a Washington State highway. She told the people who picked her up that she had been walking for days since the Beech A-35 she was flying in with her step-grandparents flew into a bank of clouds and then crashed in the wilderness. The plane caught fire; only Veatch was able to escape.

Veatch's own story is remarkable, but even more remarkable is that,...